


Wide Open Spaces

by semperama



Series: Tumblr Ficlets - Band of Brothers [1]
Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Orphanage, M/M, Sneaking Out, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-15
Updated: 2016-04-15
Packaged: 2018-11-19 04:08:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11305371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/semperama/pseuds/semperama
Summary: Nix dreams of Dick’s happiness more than he dreams of his own.





	Wide Open Spaces

Dick’s legs have grown too long for the bed. He sleeps curled in on himself, his knees drawn up and his arms wrapped around his middle like he’s worried about protecting his soft parts, and Nix watches him from across the small, dark distance between their beds and and wonders at how vulnerable he looks. It makes him feel protective, seeing him like this.

Someone _should_ be protective of Dick. Dick is the one who stands up for everyone else, the one who keeps the older boys from pushing around the weak ones, the one who can talk even the meanest of bullies out of doing something stupid. He’s 16 going on 60, Nix thinks. He doesn’t belong in a place like this, where it’s a foregone conclusion that none of them have any hope of making something of themselves. He belongs in a little red schoolhouse somewhere in the country, where he can run around like a kid and girls will blush when he turns his pretty green eyes their way.

Nix dreams of Dick’s happiness more than he dreams of his own. And in the middle of the night, when those dreams get too vivid and too painful, he has to do something about it.

Dick’s eyes open as soon as Nix slips out of his bed, which isn’t surprising. Nix knew he wasn’t really asleep, and if he was, he would have left him alone. Sleep is the only real escape, after all. But now, Dick is wide awake, his mouth already curving into that long-suffering grin that Nix loves so much.

“Go back to bed, Nix,” he whispers, but he says that every time and Nix never listens. This time Nix doesn’t even try to argue, just crosses his arms over his chest and waits for Dick to sit up and swing his legs over the edge of the cot, yawning.

A few of the other boys watch them as they walk down the row of beds, but they don’t say anything. Tomorrow night, Dick and Nix will watch another couple of boys sneak by, and they won’t say anything either. If there’s one thing every teenage boy understands, it’s the need to steal away for some privacy, especially when it’s so hard to come by in a place like this.

Everyone has their preferred secret spot. There’s a little attic crawlspace that someone manages to keep stocked with cigarettes and dirty pictures; the woman who watches over the second floor sleeps like the dead, so sometimes the boys up there organize poker games in the bathrooms; and if you’re brave enough to venture into the basement at night, you’re pretty much guaranteed not to be disturbed. But Nix would never take Dick to any of those places—places where only illicit things happen. The very thought of it makes him want to laugh or puke or both.

Their spot is out on the roof. One of the third floor classrooms has a window that opens over a gable, and from there they can scramble up to a small, flat space behind a chimney. Tucked between two sloping parts of the roof and sitting with their backs against the brick, they are sheltered from the elements and unlikely to be bothered by any of the other boys. Sometimes, to Nix, it feels like the only place there is truly any fresh air. It’s the only place he really feels free.

“It’s cold tonight,” Dick mumbles as they half-crawl up the roof to their spot. It doesn’t seem like a complaint though, just a simple observation. Once they reach the chimney, it becomes an excuse to sit with their shoulders and thighs pressed together. Nix stashed some cigarettes on one of the ledges last time he came up here, but he doesn’t reach for them now. He doesn’t want to spoil it. Soon it will be the dead of winter and they will be forced to stay in their beds more often, and he’d rather spend this time pressed against Dick than having an illicit smoke.

“We don’t have to stay long,” Nix says. They’ve watched the sunrise up here many times before, but he always feels guilty for it when Dick starts nodding off at his desk the next day.

Dick doesn’t answer, just leans a little more heavily against Nix’s shoulder. It would be so easy to put an arm around him or thread their fingers together. Nix imagines it sometimes, when he is feeling particularly selfish. Sometimes he imagines more than that. Sometimes, when his head is bowed for the prayers that the teachers lead them in before each meal, his stomach gets twisty and achy with the shame of all the things he imagines.

“What do you think you’ll do when you get out?” Nix asks. He’s asked it a hundred times before, but the answer changes every so often, and anyway, he likes to hear about Dick’s plans.

“Go somewhere with a lot of space,” Dick says. “A lot of empty space, with animals and things that grow.”

Nix has heard this one before. He knows it well enough join in. “Get a job on a farm? Do some backbreaking labor?”

“Save enough money to buy a farm of my own.” Dick looks over at him and smiles. “I want some horses, I think. Maybe some chickens. Fresh eggs every morning.”

“That sounds nice,” Nix says. It sounds exactly like what Dick deserves.

“You should come with me.”

That is a new addition to the story, and it makes Nix tense up, makes his head snap around to check whether Dick is joking or not. Dick is smiling wider now, but it's not a teasing smile.

“You should,” he says again. “I’d want you to be there.”

Nix laughs nervously, his heart running like a rabbit in his chest. “I don’t know, Dick. Can you imagine me on a farm?”

“Yeah, I can,” Dick says. “I do.”

And then neither of them are smiling anymore. It’s not funny. It’s not a joke. It’s the promise of a life, green grass and blue sky and freedom and Dick by his side every single day. Nix doesn’t spend a lot of time dreaming of his own happiness, but he knows now that if he did, this is what it would be: him and Dick together, somewhere, anywhere that isn't here.

Nix leans in before he can talk himself out of it, but the kiss is quicker than the blink of an eye, the smallest taste of Dick’s soft, warm mouth before he pulls away again out of fear. The blood is rushing in his ears when he lets his head thunk back against the chimney again. His lips were only on Dick’s for a split second, but he can feel the echo of it as strongly as if they were still there.

“Nix,” Dick says, but he doesn’t say anything after that. Instead, he touches the back of Nix’s hand, and when Nix jerks in surprise, Dick clutches his wrist and then twines their fingers together and squeezes. “It’s okay.”

Then he slumps down and puts his head on Nix’s shoulder, his thumb stroking the heel of his hand, making him feel like he could sprout wings and fly them both off that roof. With Dick’s breath warm on his neck, he closes his eyes and imagines wide open spaces.


End file.
